These two things are very important as you develop yourself as a player. In competition it is thistrust in yourself that allows you to make good strokes even in the midst of what some would perceive as pressure. If you don’t love yourself, no one else will. Loving yourself allows you to make mistakes from which you can grow.

Falling Forward

A person who loves himself looks at a mistake as falling down but he always falls forward. He brushes off his mistake, he forgets about it and moves on knowing that he will make more mistakes in the future but full of the knowledge that each mistake he makes he will improve and he learns not to do it again. He is ready for the situation with a clear mind, not one cluttered with paralyzing fears. He has learned that the first thing you do about a mistake is to forget about it!

Falling Backward

On the other hand, a person who doesn’t love and trust himself when he falls, he falls backward. Backward meaning he wallows in his ineptitude. He remembers all of his past failures, and he develops the fear that he will always be a failure. If he knows that he will fail he will have the fear of failure and the fear of failure is a self-fulfilling prophecy. He has learned that he should remember his mistakes and if he is careful he won’t make the same mistake in the future.

Criticism

A person that takes on criticism from himself or from others creates a heavy burden. The golf stroke seems heavy and burdensome because he is not playing up to his expectations. When he gets a good shot he says “Well, it is about time.”

The golfer that does not listen to criticism and who does not criticize himself plays the golf strokes one at a time and is surprised every time he gets a good shot because he had no expectations of getting a good shot. He only trusted himself and made the best stroke possible at the time. He was simply doing the best he could at that moment.